Bitcoin Forum

I see this everyday on the currency exchange threads! (Mostly newb and brand new accounts trying to scam I ASSUME)

I regularly see posts where users with BRAND NEW accounts make a post WTS Paypal, WTB BTC. +100 trust on paxful. Add me via telegram or discord for faster responses!I ADVISE TO STAY AWAY FROM THIS!!!!

First of all just because the users has the same name as an account on Paxful does not mean they are them. Also even if a user has Trust on Paxful and you know for a fact it is them, does not mean they are Trusted here!

Everyday I see users trying to I ASSUME SCAM people with brand new accounts. Pretending to be high ranking users from other websites! Or saying pm me via discord for the TRADE! The trust system here was built specifically for Bitcointalk only! Just because you did a trade with Jesus on Paxful and everything went ok, and you come here and see the same Jesus account. Does not mean you leave them a green trust because everything went ok on Paxful!  Just Because that Jesus account has the same picture as the Jesus account via Paxful does not mean it is them!!!! If you do not make the deal here do not post the trust here!  Just because Tommy scammed someone on Twitter does not mean that you go and leave a Tommy here a red trust.

Just because you bought something from someone off Twitter and they sent it and everything turned out fine. Does not mean that here they WILL NOT SCAM SOMEONE! IF you sent someone $20 and they sent back as promised does not mean they deserve a green trust.  Send users Substantial ammounts of money and they not scam you then you may leave a green trust!

I also advise to stay away from TELEGRAM, KEYBASE, or DISCORD trades.(Unless they are a high ranking and trusted account with plenty of feedback) I ADVISE this simply because a trade on discord cannot be viewed here. I also advise when making trades here post all transaction info and make sure before you EVER send anything that all transactions are posted via the trading thread OPEN FOR EVERYONE TO SEE!!! You do not have to do this with some of the High trusted users here. But for newer members it IS ADVISED!!!

The trust system here was built for if you "TRULY BELIEVE" a user is not likely to scam anyone! Just because you have made 1 successful trade with a user here does not mean that they deserve a green trust! Neutral trust can be used the same as a green trust. It is just that you would use a neutral trust with someone whom you made 1 trade with and everything turned out fine. You could then say Well I sent the user .01 BTC FIRST user wired me the funds after and everything went fine! (Neutral but good feedback)

Just because you made 1 successful trade with a user does not mean that the user is not going to turn around the very NEXT trade and say looking to buy .05 BTC. The next person in line sees your green trust and thinks well he is trusted here. They then send the user .05 BTC and never hear from them again. You would then leave a NEGATIVE FEEDBACK!

I also advise that if you are going to make a trade with a user here and you are UNSURE if they are trustworthy. Check the links (Most can be found under the trust left by previous users).

I also suggest that if you do a trade here to post a direct link back to each and every trade! This saves other users from in the future having to search users (Previous post) to find EACH and EVERY TRADE!!!

I KiND OF STRAYED AWAY FROM WHAT I WAS GETTING AT HERE BUT ANYWAYS ALWAYS CHECK THE LINKS OF EVERY TRADE. AND ALWAYS CHECK THE TRUST FROM OTHER USERS LEFT AS IT CAN ALWAYS BE A SCAMMER LEAVING A + TRUST ON HIS MAIN SCAMMING ACCOUNT!

Have fun and happy trading!

It is not always true. Scammers who use brand new or newbie accounts to scam are the 'poorest' scammers (I assume). Because there is very limited people who accept to make deal with newbie or brandnew accounts.

The risk is buying a higher rank accounts, like Senior Member and above, and use such accounts to scam. Your guide might probably mislead noobs that they are much safer when Senior members and above make deal with them.

The key:
- Don't trust, verify first.

Which things to verify?

Their trust scores, total positive and negative counters.

From positive counters, if you have time you should move to the positive-trust-givers to see whether they are trust sellers or not. There are many complaints and proofs that there are shady trust exchanges. It is the point scammers might aim at. Buying one or two positive trust and have better probability to scam.

From negative counters, let's move on to see reasons behind it, with negative feedback.

Just avoid clicking  any website people throw here.
If you are very curious about it, paste the Url in virustotal.com first. If the result is clean, try it.

This is a great attack vector for phishing, so every should be careful .

Virustotal is certainly a welcome help to check links and files, but it should not be taken for granted that something is safe only if that site says that's the case. Phishing is a big problem, but even if we avoid it, there are sites that do classic scam by offering high-interest or cloud-mining investments. Such sites are usually malware/virus free, but still dangerous because of their intention to deceive the visitor.

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I agree with OP, trust should be used in proper way or it loses its meaning. Many scammers use Hero/Legendary accounts here as a cover for their fraud on other forums/social networks. What many people do not know is that only signed message from address that is signed before may be credible proof of ownership of the account. Even this is not entirely safe, as those who sell bitcointalk accounts often also sell private keys/original e-mail addresses of that accounts.

Just try to double-check before clicking on any website whether it is posted in this forum or any other platform. In trading always try to put your money in some trustable exchanges so that you can get your return on time. So be safe from scammy and phishing websites.

It's always advisable to use an escrow, especially when you're new here and have not had a personal encounter with the users here, and can only go by the remarks on their trust score. If you're an old member and have had interactions with different users, you can use your own criteria to decide who to trust and with what.
I will not advise one to simply use the feedback to enter trades. Review the account behavior and also the feedbacks to determine which is legitimate.

This post isn't necessary for this section (Beginners and help) as you only tell subjectively your own experiences and even generalized that scams are mostly made by newbies and brand new accounts on the forum. If you ever found one, better report it to the moderator instead or if ever it isn't a user but only someone is promoting such scams on different platform especially telegram, better make a thread to Scam Accusations.

 But then again, to all whom are reading this thread. Just be aware and never trust easily. No scammed people = no scam at all.

If you are in doubt that someone is impersonating a trusted member from another forum here on Bitcointalk just avoid contacting him here and make contact with the person trusted on that other forum.
But of course, always use an escrow if possible. It is better to pay a little more and be safe than to get scammed or risk being.
Use your gut feeling. If you dont feel comfortable with someone just stop.

I posted about this days back.

It doesn’t make much sense trusting someone on the internet just because they seem to be familiar. That’s an easy scam, Newbies fall for. Accounts get hacked, sold, and people change. Always take precautions and cut down the risks to the minimum.

I don't think people get trapped for this kind of scams when they are trusted here then trust them while trading if they are trusted persons on another platform then its advisable to contact them on that platform and verify their identity.

While trading BTC for reversible payment method like paypal don't trust random people even with positive trust scores,just go when they are trusted here for longer term and had done that kind of trading lot of time here.

There are two different notions here, as indicated in the OP:

- Whether a profile on another site is indeed the same as on this site (and whether his trades there carry any weight here).
- The ratings on the Trust scores here themselves.

On the former, I’d be pretty reluctant to accept a third-party’s site ratings as proof of much, and having to investigate whether the external site’s profile is legit, and is indeed the same as on this site is rather off-putting.

On the latter, Trust scores and in many cases are misused. Being their conceptual nature that of rating commercial TXs that derive Trust upon the person dealt with, there are a tremendous amount of cases where the trust is built either a bunch of very small commercial valued TXs, or things which are unrelated. Look at my profile for example: All my positive Trust scores are not really commerce relates, and are therefore conceptually wrong (*), although I’m trustworthy as hell IRL.

(*) They should probably be neutral, although I personally do not like the use of neutral for something that, again, is not commerce related. Using a feature for commerce related stuff on positive/negative values, but conceptually allowing for other con commercial neutral rating call for confusion, and it would be better to have a system to rate Trust  for commerce and "Trust" (or whatever we want to call it) for anything else, as two different entities.

I also want to caution people on trusting the trust system, because it is not 100% foolproof. A person can have some Sockpuppet accounts giving him or her positive trust or it might even be a bought account.

A lot of scammers will use a long con method to gain people's trust over a long period and then when they get a large enough trade, they might turn scam with that account. < They do several small trades, just waiting for that big one to run away >

The trust system should only serve as a guideline, you will have to trust your gut and also use your common sense when you go into large trades. < I prefer to do multiple smaller trades to reduce the risk and I always use Escrow services >  ;)